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Tell HN: Beware confidentiality agreements that act as lifetime non competes

416 points throwarayes | 1 comments | 21 Jun 25 16:02 UTC | HN request time: 0.207s | source

Just a note of warning from personal experience.

Companies don’t really need non-competes anymore. Some companies take an extremely broad interpretation of IP confidentiality, where they consider doing any work in the industry during your lifetime an inevitable confidentiality violation. They argue it would be impossible for you to work elsewhere in this industry during your entire career without violating confidentiality with the technical and business instincts you bring to that domain. It doesn’t require conscious violation on your part (they argue).

So beware and read your employment agreement carefully.

More here https://www.promarket.org/2024/02/08/confidentiality-agreeme...

And this is the insane legal doctrine behind this

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inevitable_disclosure

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matsemann ◴[21 Jun 25 18:56 UTC] No.44339861[source]▶
So happy my union managed to ban broad non-competes in my country ~8 years ago. Now it needs to be very specific if they want to enforce it (not just "development work in the same industry" which most contracts had back when I graduated), only applicable for maximum a year, and they have to pay your salary for the time they stop you working somewhere else.
replies(2): >>44340095 #>>44346916 #
spigottoday ◴[22 Jun 25 13:45 UTC] No.44346916[source]▶
What about health insurance?
replies(1): >>44348162 #
matsemann ◴[22 Jun 25 16:24 UTC] No.44348162[source]▶
We don't need health insurance in Norway. ("universal health care" or what's it called in English?)
replies(1): >>44348530 #
socalgal2 ◴[22 Jun 25 17:17 UTC] No.44348530[source]▶
Isn't Norway's government is funded by gas and oil? Burn down the planet so we can have free health care
replies(1): >>44348706 #
matsemann ◴[22 Jun 25 17:39 UTC] No.44348706[source]▶
The economy may be well-boosted by the oil, but note that all the money is put into a fund and invested globally, and only a small percentage may be used in the government's budget each year. So no, free healthcare isn't funded by oil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Pension_Fund_of_Nor...

And while I don't support our continued extraction of oil, I feel like your comment is quite weird. How is it relevant in this context? Lots of other nations have public health care without having oil. Besides, the US produces many, many times more oil each year than Norway, so your argument is a complete non sequitur.

Whatever beef you have, please don't include me in it.

replies(2): >>44353846 #>>44360348 #
1. WhyNotHugo ◴[23 Jun 25 09:26 UTC] No.44353846[source]▶
To add to this, the government fund also deliberately avoids investing in oil, tobacco, military weaponry and a few similar industries.